


Everything around you is caving in

by Chiomi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Identity Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9205100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiomi/pseuds/Chiomi
Summary: Adrien accidentally finds out.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [marciacmoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/marciacmoon/gifts).



> hello yes you asked for angst i hope you like it

His stomach hurt. He suppressed the urge to turn around. She wouldn’t know why he was looking at her, anyway. He wasn’t supposed to know. He was sure, though, absolutely and completely sure.

Adrien hadn’t even suspected Marinette was Ladybug for the first year - sure, there were some superficial similarities, but Ladybug was . . . Ladybug. Larger than life, full of fire, lighter than air. Adrien had a hard time picturing her as a civilian at all.

But Marinette had come out of her shell some more, and she did things like charm a famous and famously picky rock star and create beautiful things seemingly as effortlessly as Ladybug and take charge of the class easy as breathing. She was remarkable in her own way. He’d admired her.

It had never clicked, though. There was nothing to piece together: Ladybug didn’t want him to know, and she wouldn’t tell him, so he tried not to think about it or even wonder too pointedly. So he didn’t connect Marinette and Ladybug through noting their similarities of personality or voice or appearance. He wouldn’t do that to her.

They were just at a dance, and there was a red strobe, and he saw her move. Suddenly there was no way to un-see it. Marinette was Ladybug.

He’d had the knowledge burning a hole in him over the weekend. He didn’t know what to do with it. She didn’t want him to know as Chat, and as Adrien - they weren’t that close. And she couldn’t even have told Alya, not with Alya’s continued approach to the Ladyblog. So the entirety of Marinette was wrapped around this secret, and all he wanted to do was turn around and look at her and search for all the tells he should have seen over the last two years.

He was worried, though, that she’d hate him for figuring it out. He’d pried out the one secret she’d ever kept from him, and it didn’t matter that it was an accident, it was a betrayal. Adrien would walk through fire for this girl, kill or die for her, but instead he’d done the one thing she never wanted him to.

It was probably going to be a problem.

-

Adrien had a really hard time being normal around Marinette that afternoon as they all studied in the library. He kept sneaking glances at her, at the pigtails that should have been unmistakable, at her bright blue eyes. At the constellation of freckles he studied as assiduously as any astronomer studied the night sky. It made him feel sick that he might not - that she might want him away from her now that he knew. He should tell her he knew, tell her who he was, but it might be the end of everything.

He picked up that he might have been staring a little too much when he noticed Alya nudging Nino. Shit. Nino knew he’d been hung up on Ladybug for years - if he was too obviously into Marinette Nino would make the connection there too and then Marinette would definitely never forgive him.

He looked at Nino, panicked. Nino quirked an eyebrow, but his face was sympathetic: he didn’t know what was up, but he’d keep Alya from making it awkward as much as he could. Adrien breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve Nino, but he was amazing. Adrien should still leave before he - before it all came falling down. He checked his phone. “Oh, no, I forgot I had an appointment. I have to run. See you guys tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah, dude,” Nino said.

-

Trepidation dogged him until the start of patrol. If he were just slightly more catlike in his nature it would have treed him. He and Ladybug would cover their own arrondissements and meet up afterwards unless they found something they needed backup for. He put away his feelings as much as possible for patrol: the people of Paris deserved it from him. Added to that, Ladybug would be disappointed in him if he did anything less than his best, and he didn’t want to compound the reasons she would have for disappointment.

The city was as quiet as Paris ever was; a mugging to disrupt, a pickpocket working a crowd around a street performer who spotted Chat and grinned and waved and put the wallet she was lifting back in the tourist’s purse.

He got to their meetingplace early. He didn’t, always - she was faster with her yoyo than he was with his pole, and if there was anything big enough to be a major delay they called each other. It was part of the foundation of trust their partnership was built on. His cat ears folded close to his head in a reflection of his misery. He’d expected finding out Ladybug’s identity to be a joyful thing, in the best case, something she agreed to once Hawkmoth was vanquished.

But it wasn’t. She’d be so mad at him.

Her landing on the rooftop was soft; he heard her only because of his enhanced hearing. Oh no. This was it. He had to tell her right away. He took a deep breath and turned to Ladybug. “Bonsoir, Marinette.”


End file.
